The winner of three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the National Book Award (and twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), E.L. Doctorow presents this collection of a dozen stories (six new and six previously published) about people who, as he notes in his preface, are somehow "distinct from their surroundings—people in some sort of contest with the prevailing world."

"Once you immerse yourself in these stories, you'll wish you had all the time in the world.... These stories work on another level, revealing news about the world, yes, but also revealing the mysteries that lie at the heart of human behavior."—NPR

"Never as simple as they seem on the surface, his stories are full of paradox and good humor with a sometimes caustic underbelly; they're absurd in a funny sort of way. He reveals the quirks of our society in the kind of stories others can only aspire to write."—Minneapolis Star Tribune